Nicola Sturgeon denies four-nation approach is 'breaking down'

Nicola Sturgeon has denied the four-nation approach to tackling coronavirus across the UK is ‘breaking down’ despite confusion over differing messages from the Scottish and UK governments.

Boris Johnson has announced the lifting of some lockdown restrictions and changed the key message from “stay home” to “stay alert”, to allow some people to go back to work in England, while the First Minister said that the lockdown in Scotland had not changed, and people should still “stay at home to save lives.”

However she added while there was an “underdstandable tendancy” to see “division” as the governments were taking “slightly different approaches, on different timelines in different parts of the UK”, there was no “breaking down of the four-nations approach”.

Nicola Sturgeon has said England and Scotland are moving at "different speeds" over lockdown.

She said: “I would ask people not to see it as that. I am still very keen to co-operate and collaborate as much as possible and I still think as much alignment as possible is really important, if not on the fine detail and timing if the evidence says otherwise, then in the overall approach we’re taking.

“I’m looking to align our positions as much as possible but of course the decisions about when and what has to be guided by the scientific evidence here in Scotland.”

Asked at her daily briefing in Edinburgh if she considered Mr Johnson’s lifting of restrictions to be premature, she said: “It’s not for me to judge if the actions are premature for England, but they are premature for Scotland.

“Within a four-nations approach, which is still there, we can either have a pragmatic acceptance that the evidence puts us all on to slightly different timelines, which is what we’ve got now, or you can decide to go at the pace of the slowest. Where we’ve got to now is we might move at different speeds depending on the evidence.

“I can’t judge the right speed for England but it’s my responsibility to judge the right speed for Scotland and I believe it’s premature for Scotland. My judgement on some of them might be different next week, and in two weeks different still.”

She said that the differences between governments were in “degrees not in the fundamentals of approach”.

On people crossing the border from England into Scotland, she said it was “not ok” to drive to Scottish beauty spots or for leisure actitivities as it was not yet permitted in Scotland.

“If you’re right on the border you can come into Scotland for your daily exercise, but driving to beauty spots is not allowed.”

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